EDIT: This guide is much better to use: https://demo.hedgedoc.org/s/2mYWv0YvK#
No reason to use my guide now that this exists.

Spoiler: Old Obsolete Guide

Thanks to diddy81 for his custom themes and tools, it's possible to install custom themes on vWii! This wasn't originally possible by normal means, but thanks to this script you can easily inject a theme straight to your vWii. I take no credit for anything in this tutorial, I am simply projecting his work into a tutorial you can follow. His original post is HERE
You just need wupclient, Mocha CFW, and diddy81's themes & tools.



1) Download diddy81's script HERE
2) Extract the NTSC or PAL folder depending on your region
3) Download the latest wupclient from FIX94 HERE
4) Open the zip, browse to wupclient, extract wupclient.py and place it in the NTSC or PAL folder
5) Boot up Homebrew Launcher through either haxchi or browser, and choose Mocha CFW. It should reboot to home menu but with wupserver enabled
6) On your computer, open wupclient.py in a notepad. Scroll down until you see a line with an IP address, that looks like 192.168.1.50. Delete this and add your Wiiu's IP. Then save and close it
7) Install Python if you haven't already
8) Run the file called BackupxxxApp.py with Python, and it will automatically do all the work for you to download your vWii's .app file. It will take a while to finish
Note: Backup this .app file somewhere safe, in case you want to revert back to the original theme or want to use a different custom theme

9) Once it's done, download diddy81's ThemeMii Mod HERE and extract it to your computer
10) Download the theme of your choice from diddy81's thread HERE (Be sure it's your region and for 4.3!!!)
11) Open ThemeMii.exe and go to File>Open and choose the .mym theme file you downloaded in step 10
12) Click on "Convert to .csm" and choose the .app file we extracted earlier from your vWii on step 8
13) Save it as theme.csm and place it in the NTSC or PAL folder depending on what you have
14) With your Wiiu still on, run "Injectxxxtheme.py" and it will automatically inject the theme file for you. This will take much longer to inject, be patient (You may get an error at the end. Ignore this, it succeeded)
15) Once it's done injecting, launch vWii as usual and your theme should be there!

I thought it would brick

Yes through the normal conventional way of installing from Homebrew Channel using the homebrew app. But this injects the theme directly to vWii without being in vWii via IOSUhax. I tested it myself and got a red theme going in my vWii.

This is an alternate method for custom themes that works.

 

[Panchosfriend]

hmm..don't recall that problem, but it's been many years. the vwii theme did survive from 5.5.1 to 5.5.5, since I updated a month or two ago. no issues doing that, but I did have to make the update folder again with the right privileges. I deleted it again after updating though.

Hey godreborn,

I am having an issue every time I install a theme on vwii. Once I press exit after the theme is installed. I get a a black screen with numbers and letters and the exception (program) occurred. I have to manually disconnect my Wii U and once I boot back up the theme is successfully applied on vwii. I downloaded the mymenuify program from the written guide and it works as intended. Any ideas on why I am getting the exception black screen error?

 

[godreborn]

Hey godreborn,

I am having an issue every time I install a theme on vwii. Once I press exit after the theme is installed. I get a a black screen with numbers and letters and the exception (program) occurred. I have to manually disconnect my Wii U and once I boot back up the theme is successfully applied on vwii. I downloaded the mymenuify program from the written guide and it works as intended. Any ideas on why I am getting the exception black screen error?

Not sure. I never used mymenufy. I did the original method with wup server and python.

 

[godreborn]

Hey godreborn,

I am having an issue every time I install a theme on vwii. Once I press exit after the theme is installed. I get a a black screen with numbers and letters and the exception (program) occurred. I have to manually disconnect my Wii U and once I boot back up the theme is successfully applied on vwii. I downloaded the mymenuify program from the written guide and it works as intended. Any ideas on why I am getting the exception black screen error?

BTW, I have a backup of both the original and blue themes if you want to test them.

 

[Panchosfriend]

Not sure. I never used mymenufy. I did the original method with wup server and python.

Oh okay. It makes sense. Thank you for responding.

 

[Lostbhoy]

So how do we create our own vWii themes? I'd like to make a few colour edits to the dark one.

 

[Dragon91Nippon]

So how do we create our own vWii themes? I'd like to make a few colour edits to the dark one.

The same way we make Wii themes. Just using the vWii app file (corosponding to appropriate region) as a base for the theme.

 

[Lostbhoy]

Well that explanation was in depth!

How do i edit the app file? What do i use to extract the image?

 

[XFlak]

So I'm more a Wii guy and not a vWii guy, but I'm dipping my toe into the vWii waters so to speak and I could use some help

I'm trying to build vWii themes by command line

I'm using the Theme Mii Command Line version (TMCL.exe) that @scooby74029 made, and it's failing when run on a vWii base app

All Files Found !!
Unpacking base app ...
File is not a valid U8 Archive!
Completed making temp.csm !!

And actually there is no temp.csm created. normally when using a Wii (not vWii) base app the output looks like this:

All Files Found !!
Unpacking base app ...
Parsing mym.ini ...
 Complete !!
Parsing mym.ini ...

Completed making temp.csm !!

I thought for sure it was TMCL.exe, but then I tried Theme Mii (gui version), and same result, then the mod by diddy81 referenced in vWii theme building guides and same result

Someone else is reported the same issue here: https://gbatemp.net/threads/installing-custom-themes-in-vwii.476012/post-9510806

I'm now wondering if the base app I am getting from NUS is incorrect, I followed the steps from here perfectly: https://demo.hedgedoc.org/s/2mYWv0YvK#Downloading-the-required-files

and here are the md5 hashes of my base app files

Japan    0000001c.app    f323c78809e40fb7b613fa505cb749eb
USA        0000001f.app    b617b46cde2d3532e8d9a90ebbff3526
Europe    00000022.app    4124f5514848bc15c053f20a8acb06b7

Can someone help tell me what I'm doing wrong? Am I somehow not getting the correct base apps? Thx!

edit: solved, nus downloader requires the vwii common key saved to key.bin, alternatively you can use sharpii, doesn't need it